Two Days Late
by cruelfeline
Summary: Two days after Valentine's Day, Ichigo is still giddy over Aoyama... that is, until a certain alien decides to visit her...KisshuxIchigo Oneshot


AN: Being the avid K/I fan that I am, I had to write a Valentine's Day ficlet. And yes, yes, I _know_ I'm two days late, but that shouldn't matter for this story. It's accounted for :P. And after spending the night before making truffles till 2 AM, I needed the sleep.

Anyways, this is just a little one-shot I'm writing out quickly, so don't go all insane over crappiness and weirdness. I was compelled by the chocolate; I swear :P.

While we're still in the note, all P/L fans must go read AnimeKittyCafe's new V-Day one-shot "Starting Anew."

And all TMM peoples must go read her fic "Babysitter."

Go. MAINTENANT. Fear le français. O.O

AKC, ye gots me love :).

Mmm… yea. So, I think I first tried to make this something of a continuation of ep 45, but that actually made me nauseous (cuz in that ep, Ichigo just needs to be shot; that's all there is to say about her), so this is just a random…V-Day… thing. Mhmm.

So….eh… have fun :P

Disclaimer: Go check if Masaya still exists. Still there? Yea? Okay, now go check if Ichigo and Kisshu have gotten together. No? Both proof that I don't own TMM :P

* * *

Normally, Ichigo could hardly be called eager to clean her room, but today was a grand exception.

Today, she dusted her desk with a smile on her cheerful face, picking up clothes and books and random stuffed animals with a giggle perpetually bubbling away in her throat.

Now, there was nothing particularly special about today, other than the fact that it was two days after _another_ day, a very _specific_ day.

Valentine's Day.

Anyone who knew Ichigo even marginally well could quickly guess the exact nature of what had happened on that day to make her so ridiculously happy a full two days after.

Barely touching the memories gave her a pleasant tingle of giddy ecstasy.

Everything had gone so perfectly. Sure, there had first been the entire production of _making_ the chocolate, but she had had Keiichiro's help with that, even if she had nearly cost them all the café a few (one, two…ten…) times. The girl had had to try quite a few times (and realize that no, adding more baking powder did _not_ make it bake faster, not even the sixth time), but in the end, she had created something that was not only edible, but also, she had observed with a soft, proud smile, somewhat worthy of her dear Aoyama-kun.

The rest was short, sweet, and, needless to say, unbelievable sappy.

Of course, she had _loved_ it.

The boy had accepted her candy, pronounced it the finest he had ever sampled, and the couple had spent the remainder of the day wandering through the park, lost in such tender feelings that the faintest recollection temporarily took Ichigo's breath away in a faint squeak of joy.

He had been so wonderful, so gentle, his voice so melodious every time he whispered her name before squeezing her hand just a little tighter. And his hands… their touch, so soft and _loving_…

"Nyaaaa!" Ichigo sighed, shutting her closet door with a grin whose size and brightness rivaled the parameters of biological possibility.

So happy… so _amazingly_ happy…

She began to giggle again, about to turn around and cheerfully poke little Masha into joining in her jubilation, when…

"Wow! I didn't expect you to be that happy to see me, koneko-chan."

Freeze.

Enter that slow, painful turning around with full knowledge of what she would see…

Sure enough, there he was, smug smirk firmly in place on his impish face, one fang sticking out over his lower lip, cocky, devilish gaze locked with hers.

"Kisshu!"

"Hey." That searing gaze held her captive as usual as his smirk widened. "How've ya been?"

His cool, easy tone did little to reassure her.

Her first instinct was to reach for her transformation charm, but… her heart seemed to falter; her breathe caught in her throat as her surprised gaze turned into a glare.

She had left it on her desk, and he floated between her and the desk…

_I'm trapped_…

Fists clenched at her sides, she looked up at him with all the bravery and defiance she could muster, only to find that he...

…did not look very intent on attacking her.

In fact, rather than performing a Fusion or calling out his Dragon Swords, the boy landed in front of her, hands held, why, she could not guess, behind his back. The usual smirk actually seemed somewhat ni—

No!

If he wasn't here to hurt her, then he was here to ki—

"Happy Valentine's Day!"

…okay…

For a second, she blanked.

The alien was holding out an amazingly large bouquet of roses (it was surely more than a dozen; even in her stunned state, Ichigo could plainly see that), a wide, fanged grin taking up much of his pale face.

Ichigo blinked.

_Happy…wha?_

_He… he got me roses? Why would he…?_

Still staring, she noticed a heart-shaped box of candy peeking out from among ruby-red rose heads.

…_and candy?_

Ichigo might have stood there, perfectly frozen in shock, lips parted in silent astonishment, had the boy not cocked his head to the side and, grin transforming into his customary smirk, broken her paralysis.

"Well? Isn't this the part where you kiss me?"

Ichigo blinked.

Snickering softly, Kisshu turned around and placed the bouquet on the girl's desk before turning back to her.

"I guess you need a little…_ encouragement_…"

He levitated up to her, landing gently and tilting her face up with one clawed finger.

Slowly, the distance between their lips diminished, until—

"Gah! Get _away_!"

In one violent motion, the cat-girl shoved Kisshu away from her. Her expression was no longer bewildered; her tenacious spunk was written in every feature as she glared at him.

Kisshu, in turn, merely gave her an amused look.

"Aww… come now, koneko-chan, you can't mean that after I went through all this trouble, ne?" His silky tone complemented his smirk.

Though… in that look… was there…?

Did his eyes look just a little less cocky and a little more—

Goodness, no!

_Stupid…_

Just her imagination.

That bizarre stray thought strangled, the girl went off into one of her usual loud, angry rants.

"What makes you think I'd kiss _you_?"

Before the boy could even hope to answer, Ichigo ranted on, picking on the first bit of wrongness that came to mind.

"Besides, on Valentine's Day, _girls_ give chocolates to _guys_," she huffed, eyes narrowing even further.

Suddenly, she threw up her arms in a fresh wave of exasperation.

"And you're two days late _anyway_!"

Kisshu took all of this with a bemused stare. Then:

"…don't you mean _you're_ two days late giving me chocolate, then?"

Ah, if only she had realized that she was setting herself up for that one.

"Raah! Get _out_ of here! Out!"

Ichigo now did what any worked up, desperate girl needing to get a guy out of her room would have done: she grabbed her pillow and employed it as a mallet against the boy's green-haired head (all the while wishing it wasn't quite so soft, but beggars can't be choosers, now can they?).

"Oi!"

Kisshu quickly put up an arm to defend himself, giving a surprised yelp as pillow swiftly connected with thick alien skull.

He hardly had time to give much protest, as this lasted only a few seconds. It was abruptly interrupted by the sound of Momomiya Sakura's voice.

"Ichigo-chan, what's going on up there?"

Both alien and girl froze, Ichigo turning to Kisshu with that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look. The boy quickly composed himself, swiftly running a hand through his tussled hair, straightening it and turning his curious gaze to the door.

"My mom… ack! Will you _go_ already? She can't see you in here—"

"Afraid she'll thi—"

The grin returned. His immediate return to blatant amusement infuriated her.

"I'm _afraid_ that she'll notice those gigantic ears, and the fact that your hair looks like it belongs in our _garden_, and scream herself into a _coma_!"

At this point, Ichigo, being Ichigo, seemed about ready to scream _her_self into a coma, and that only resulted in her dear mother deciding it prudent to march right up the stairs and check on her daughter. The panicking girl could hear those footsteps coming ever closer to her door…

"Kisshu!"

At first, the girl was sure that he would be difficult, demanding a kiss, perhaps, before he agreed to disappear.

That's why she was stunned when he only flashed his trademark smirk and lifted his hand in a half-wave.

"See ya later, then…"

He actually _teleported_ away. Disappeared.

Ichigo relaxed with a sigh of plain, still amazed, relief.

"…Koneko-chan."

A pair of arms encircled her waist, not tight and unyielding, but gentle almost feathery in their touch.

A pair of lips brushed the back of her neck.

Ichigo did not scream. She did not pull away from this embrace.

This was…

_It doesn't feel like… this… this…_

She had become so accustomed to him stealing quick, rough kisses from her, to him handling her with what seemed to be little care or thought, that feeling those arms, those same pale arms that wielded dangerous energy blasts and those keen daggers against her, holding her in such a gentle embrace immobilized her, and feeling those clever lips feather-soft against her skin…

And then, he was gone.

Gone, and her shock quickly dissipated. Ichigo whipped around with a stuttered "Y-you!"

The word died on her lips when she was met with silence and, try as she might, she could not rekindle the anger that had been burning within her just moments before.

"Ichigo-chan?"

Her mother poked her head in through the door.

"Is everything all right?"

Forcing a nervous laugh, Ichigo quickly smiled.

"Oh, uh, y-yeah! Yeah, I was just… uh… practicing for a play…"

Sakura blinked.

"It sounded like there were two people in here…"

"I guess I'm getting really good, ne?" The girl giggled nervously, eying her mother warily and praying that that would satisfy her.

Something else saved her from further questioning.

"Oh! Ichigo, where did these come from?"

The delight in her mother's voice disarmed her for a moment, and it took some seconds for Ichigo to realize what she was talking about. When she finally did, that stutter returned to her voice.

"N-no one! No one, they're just—"

"They're lovely!" Sakura fingered one of the roses gently before turning to smile at her daughter. "I bet Aoyama-kun gave them to you!"

This really left Ichigo speechless. Her mother laughed.

"Now, now, you don't have to hide it! I've known you two were going out for weeks. There's no need to be so secretive!"

Ichigo wrung her hands behind her back.

Normally, that would have been the most wonderful thing to hear from her mother, but this…

Obviously, this was a different case.

_Kisshu, you baka…_

She inwardly cursed the boy, but as her mother picked up the bouquet, admiring it with a cheerful smile, Ichigo found it more and more difficult to hang onto even a tinge of that former annoyance…

"But doesn't he know that he's supposed to wait a month?"

Ichigo snapped out of her thoughts. "Ah…"

The woman went on without missing a beat, more cheer replacing the momentary confusion on her face. "Well, I guess he just couldn't wait, ne? And chocolates, too!" Again, silence. Sakura peered at the flowers a little more closely before smiling again, but this time, it was more softly. Somehow, that caught Ichigo's attention.

"Two dozen."

_What?_

"Most boys get their girls only a dozen roses. It takes a special boy to break tradition and get two dozen. He must love you twice as much!"

_Love me…wha…?_

"You lucky, lucky girl! I'll put these in water for you, okay? I'll have the vase here in a minute." With that, the woman gave her daughter a quick squeeze before striding out with bouquet in hand, leaving the box of chocolates behind on the desk.

Ichigo stared after her for a while, her astonishment taking its time evaporating.

_Double… love… he can't…_

_She's wrong…_

_There's no way that he can…_

Slowly, her thoughts became more coherent, and she forced more of that annoyance back into them, until she plopped herself down in her desk chair with a frustrated sigh, glaring vehemently at the heart-shaped box.

"You stupid, idiotic…"

……..

Yet, why couldn't she think of anything after that?

Why, when her mother came back with those roses, did she not ask for them to be placed in another room? Why did she allow them to sit on her desktop, gorgeous red petals gleaming in the setting sun?

And why did she tentatively open the box, only to realize that all of the chocolates were strawberry-cream filled?

Her favorite.

As her mother left, her reminder to not fill up on anything before dinner going unnoticed, Ichigo frowned.

It would be best to just forget…

Yes. Forget.

She turned her back on the roses, made to close the chocolate box.

But…

The flowery scent had already permeated her room. And…

_Maybe just one…_

Carefully, she took one dainty little candy out of the box and tentatively bit into it.

The milk chocolate broke cleanly between her teeth. The strawberry cream bled out onto her tongue as her lips closed around the morsel.

It was delicious.

* * *

AN: All righty then. There you all go; obligatory K/I V-day fic. Cuz it had to be done. Oh, and for those of you who aren't familiar with Japanese V-day traditions: In Japan, Valentine's Day involves women giving chocolate to men. There's a whole thing about the two kinds of chocolate, one obligatory, one not, but I dun feel like explaining it now (English essay's calling my name). Then, a month after V-day, on March 14, they have White Day, which has the men giving chocolate and gifts and stuff to the women. Yea. That's basically it. If you want more info, go Google it :P.

Other than that, review if you can, please. See ya!


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